MERCURY/SATURN – Trademark™

[image: consciens by andrey bobir]No matter who you are, or more to the point, who you think you are, media is streaming constantly into your mind. Whether it’s through your online/printed media, discussions with friends and family, your neighbour over the fence, whether you hear it from the BBC, NBC, or FOX news, your favourite podcast or whether you talk to angels and spirits in your meditation or dreams… your mind is open to information constantly streaming in. Thoughts and ideas are floating about you everywhere, like electrically charged particles, waiting to connect with your senses and become processed by your amazing mind.

Of course, this is all very subject to your own discretion on what constitutes ideas to be relevant to you or not. It is also subject to the intellectual environment that you circulate yourself in. In any scenario – whether you are editor-in-chief of a large multimedia company, or you are sitting alone in a dark room, your mind still has a particular way of responding to stimuli and sorting it all out as being interesting or not.

This interplay with the world of thought and ideas is the work of Mercury, who rules the mind.

It would seem that our mind is constantly operating, sorting through and cogitating thought shapes, interacting with your Solar centre – the spirit part of you that decides what to focus on, how to express yourself, what questions to ask, consider further, develop, respond to, deny, etc.

It’s the business of our Mercurial mind to fill our communication pathways with pertinent enough two-way traffic so that our Solar mind is equipped adequately enough to process and use in the way we define ourselves through our expression. Mercury rules how our nervous system engages with the world around us through the communication of our inner, more spiritual processes.

As Mercury now enters Capricorn, the way information comes through to us takes a severely serious tone. Capricorn is an earth sign, so it streamlines thought patterns and idea bubbles into far more conservative and sober tones. Those who prefer practical, logical thinking tend to receive Mercury’s messages much more easily here than those who tend to think in more abstract, sentimental, emotional or enthusiastically excitable ways.

To add to the sobriety, Mercury’s contact to Saturn (also in Capricorn) commences a new, 12-month cycle where thoughts and ideas become crystallising into things that matter.

Saturn, lord of 3D reality, insists that things be ‘real’. He does this by slowing down energy forms here on earth to the point where they condense into physical matter to which we can all stand witness.

Hence, ideas become grounded into either plans or worries. This is because Saturn presses our thinking and spoken words to see whether they hold any weight or substance. They can be made more tangible by being put down on paper, structured into words and statements that hold up to scrutiny and judgement, pass the test of validity and practicality, verified for their logical sense and practical applicability. Otherwise, our ideas may seem like they are stored inside a prism, a vessel (like your mind) where they definitely act upon your internal world – your nervous system, but they seemed trapped, incapable of any practical use to anyone. These may store up in your body (or mind) where they can begin to accumulate as stress upon you. Mental stress can build into all sorts of nervous disorders until it matters to you so much that it affects some area of your physical life/health.

[art: vladimir takac]Needless to say, there is a lot of serious mental energy accumulating during a Mercury/Saturn contact. Words, and the way they are communicated, take on a special importance. It seems like the whole of your society is paying attention to them more seriously than usual. Hence, the awful importance on proving the veracity one’s theories or thoughts can develop into a serious attachment to being considered as smart enough, respectfully knowledgeable and intellectually competent in the face of society and the status quo.

Similarly, we may come to scrutinise the ideas and the intellectual competency of others in our world. We will listen and we will judge them for what they have to share with us. In this, we may deem their information as respectable enough to take seriously, do business with or learn from them. Or if they fail to meet our expectations, dismiss them as stupid, biased and opinionated, slow-witted or incapable of articulating themselves with any degree of success.

In some cases, Saturn’s effect on Mercury can retard or inhibit thoughts and ideas so much that they fail to be communicated at all. It is not uncommon, due to mental blocks or speech/learning impediments, that we struggle or have acute difficulties in communicating our ideas altogether. In such cases discipline or further training may be necessary, or at least hard work to find a way to get our thoughts across somehow. We may have the greatest solution to the most complex problem, but if we cannot find a way to convey it, we suffer the consequences.

In the natal chart, especially in the harder aspects, these can look like karmic afflictions to do with the mind. In one respect this presses the native towards greater mental concentration and deeper, more contemplative or methodical thinking. This produces individual’s whose tight organisation and thoroughness in all logical functions makes them successful at performing routine tasks with exceptional consistency and merit. However, in another respect, Saturn’s ‘fear of inadequacy’ factor can create individuals whose mental blocks and rigid thinking patterns stifles their mentality into skewed, shy or reserved, heavily biased or obstinately opinionated patterns that are difficult to break in later life.

Here, there is an emphasis that we train our minds to overcome routine limitations in speaking or communicating our ideas – understanding that wherever Saturn is involved things will be taken at face value and measured on the strictest of terms to see if they stack up to standards and expectations of the consensus. Heavy judgement and the shameful reactions from others may develop into negative thinking, pessimism, even resignation to pursuing intellectual pursuits; discussions; processes that we feel either not qualified to hold or are perhaps reluctant to develop further.

As such, the Lord of Karma may announce that this is a good time to take a good, long, hard look at ourselves and our intellectual property. Is it real? Can we trade it with others successfully or does it need more substance. Are others going to “buy” it, or is it just ‘waffle’ that is not up to standard. Is our message hitting the mark, or is it just not measuring up to being anything sensible or to be taken seriously?

Sometimes our ‘”ideas” need more work…

The Mercury/Saturn conjunction (Jan 13) at 02°♑49’ is a great time to examine our ideas, see whether they are valid and worthy to our society or just filled with clumsy, obstinate notions of which nobody understands or approves. We may learn the hard way whether our way of thinking is filled with superstition and outdated nonsense, or whether it’s viable and robust enough to trade as our own special commodity or trademark in the world.

By the time this aspect makes opposition (Jun 16), either we have managed to get our thoughts to matter, or they have choked, stalled, failed or become unacceptable because they are too weighted with rigid opinions and insupportable to others.